


Tripartite

by Telenovela



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: M/M, Plotless Fluff, Spoilers throughout
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 16:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7059823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telenovela/pseuds/Telenovela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Kaito learns to braid hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tripartite

**Author's Note:**

> This is maybe the fluffiest and most self-indulgent thing I've ever written, but here we are. I can't believe this is my first contribution to the Zexal fandom? I'm so sorry.
> 
> You can blame Gutter for this. They're the worst.
> 
> (Also it's probably not v obvious here so I didn't tag it, but you should know that I write Mizael as trans when he's in his human form, that is definitely a thing.)

Kaito has designed robots capable of love, built a portal to another world, fixed his family, travelled to the moon, died and returned and saved the world all before bedtime. As he crosses one section of hair over the other, he lets go of the third part, and the braid unravels in his hands. He lets out a small grunt of frustration, a frown out loud. Why is this so complicated?

"It's muscle memory, more than skill." Chris's voice reverberates through his back where Kaito's fingers card through the silvery strands of hair, untangling it ready to start again.

A face appears by Kaito's ear, pointy chin digging into his shoulder and more hair, blond this time, tickling where it falls across the bare skin of his upper back. Mizael quickly tires of lying still and feeling excluded.

"What are you trying to do?" He reaches forwards and lets his hand trail after Kaito's, sharp fingers brushing against scapula and vertebrae through the silver curtain.

There's movement under their hands as Chris sits and turns to them, sheets pooling soft around his lap.

"I'll show you," he says, leaning across Kaito to take hold of the hair hanging in front of Mizael's left ear, beneath where it spikes out. Kaito leans forward a little, chest not quite pressing against Chris's torso, close enough to be warm as he watches Chris's fingers pass the blond strands from one hand to the other, weaving them together. Chris catches Kaito's hand and guides it up to hold the end of the braid, pulling the hair tie from Kaito's wrist and over the hair, then moving Kaito's hand gently away again to loop the elastic around and around until Mizael's hair sits secure in its plait. Before he moves away, Chris gives a light tug on the braid, laughs low in his throat; Mizael's head bobs as he pouts.

For all the attention he was paying, Kaito has no idea how Chris's hands worked where his own failed.

Mizael is running his fingers over the newly braided hair, half smiling but still curious.

It must be difficult, Kaito supposes, to change from an eternal superbeing made of rock and light to a human, with hair and lungs and a heart formed from muscle instead of scarlet crystal. 

"Chris has a lot of hair," he explains, "and I always wake up with it in my mouth, or get too hot, or it gets tangled. If he braids it, it's out of the way. But this time, I wanted to try, so..."

It's harder to say out loud that he can't do it, so it stays unspoken, and hangs on their shoulders.

"It might be easier with another pair of hands," says Chris, and turns so that his back is to them, flicking the ends of his hair across the blanket and almost off the other side of the bed. 

Mizael kneels behind Kaito, small softness of his chest pressed flush against Kaito's back as he leans his weight against him, one arm over his shoulder and the other under. Chris's voice guides them to split the hair into three sections, each held in a hand, and to pass them into the middle, one at a time, one hand to another, pulling tight as they go. When they get close to the small of his back, Kaito leaning forward, Chris picks up the plait and pulls it over his shoulder so they can continue all the way to the bottom. Mizael holds the end while Chris stretches to reach another hair tie from the bedside table, and Kaito can feel Mizael watching his fingers as he pulls the elastic tight, loops it around and around. 

When they're finished, the plait hangs down Chris's back and coils on the mattress behind him, a little uneven but secure. It reminds Kaito of a shorter braid lying over the shoulder of a white labcoat, of being younger, of hurting and getting better and knowing they were both getting better, of feeling safe even when he knew he wasn't.

Going to sleep they look like this: Kaito in the middle on his back, one arm at his side pressed against Chris's back on his right, the other going numb under Mizael's neck, a hand tangled in loose blond hair; Chris with one of Kaito's legs caught casually between his own, the looping braid of his hair lying across Kaito's chest to where it's end is held in Mizael's hand, resting atop Kaito's ribs where a red crystal might be encased were he a barian; Mizael's human cheek pressed softly into Kaito's shoulder.

As he drifts off, Kaito thinks of muscle memory, of three things woven together to become one strand, held firm, passed from one hand to another, over, under, over.

**Author's Note:**

> My Zexal twitter is @duellunch, I'm pretty new to this fandom and I want to talk about it literally always so we should be friends maybe


End file.
